Elite Forensic Services Events

Instructor: Alice White (recording) [Glenn Langenburg live to host]

Course Description:

In this pre-recorded lecture, Alice addresses the fundamental biological basis to why fingerprint patterns and minutiae vary in specificity and rarity.  We will explore how the friction ridge skin develops, focusing on which features have a genetic blueprint and which features are governed by random processes.  We explore how these biological influences affect the specificity of the features and why this is critical in the comparison process.  We will identify which kinds of minutiae are more rare and discriminating and which kinds of minutiae that have low specificity.   For example, how does pattern force impact minutiae and what ramifications does that have on these minutiae during decision-making, AFIS searching, etc.?  Finally, some empirical research will be presented.

Note: this webinar serves as a perfect companion piece to Glenn Langenburg’s webinar “Beyond the Discriminating Power of Friction Ridge Arrangements”, which focuses on the same topic, but from an empirical and statistical model approach.

Length: 4 hours